


When Ekkreth Came Home

by EDelta88



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Darth Vader Redemption
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-12
Updated: 2018-04-20
Packaged: 2019-03-17 02:22:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13649457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EDelta88/pseuds/EDelta88
Summary: I was re-reading Fialleril's Double Agent Vader and got to the scene with Piett... this came to mind.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fialleril](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fialleril/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Apology Accepted](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6402778) by [Fialleril](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fialleril/pseuds/Fialleril). 



> Just a few ideas for scenes where people realize Vader is Ekkreth, Anakin, or both. Just a couple of shorts at the moment but I might add more later.

**Vader Meets the Alliance**

Something was happening, they could all feel it. There was a strange energy permeating the most recent base of the Rebel Alliance, a sort of nervous tension like the strange calm before Skywalker and his friends did something positively absurd. Most of the leadership was on base, a rare occurrence these days for security purposes and, more than once, they had been seen talking in harsh whispers. Now, most of the high command and the "who's who" on the base were gathered together. No one was sure what was going on, but everyone felt that they were about to bear witness to something... historic.

Minutes passed like hours. The officers gave each other nervous looks while their subordinates checked and rechecked their weapons out of habit. Then, just as many were beginning to wonder something had gone amiss, they heard it.

_Krrkhuu..._

_Krrkhuu..._

As the iconic death rattle echoed in the halls, the agents of the Rebel Alliance collectively shifted. Like a well oiled machine, the crowd broke into small groups, inching toward cover as fingers and claws unconsciously readied their weapons in anticipation of the order to arm themselves.

The order never came.

_Krrkhuu..._

_Krrkhuu..._

Men and women shifted nervously as the noise grew closer, accompanied by deceptively quiet footfalls.

Order or no order, weapons were drawn. 

What was going on? How was... how was _he_ here? How had he gotten into the base without anyone noticing? Why weren't they the evacuating?

What was going on?

_Krrkhuu..._

_Krrkhuu..._

Then he arrived, a giant of a man ducking through the door to the briefing room, a man who needed no introduction. For a long moment, nothing happened and as the near silence dragged on the tension in the room grew until it was thick like week old ration porridge. On one side, Darth Vader, Supreme Commander of the Imperial Navy and the Emperor's chief enforcer. On the other, the leadership of the Rebellion and a cadre of their most skilled agents and commandos with weapons drawn and ready.

And then the most wondrous thing happened...

“The rain was long ago,” Mon Mothma spoke, her voice calm and clear, a sad smile playing on her lips, “but the desert does not forget.”

The mood of the room shifted subtly as the eyes of spies and infiltrators flicked uncertainly between their leader and the menace that had terrorized them for decades. They recognized those words. How could they not? They were the words that their superiors and handlers had forced them to memorize for the most dire of situations. It was the code for when you were cornered, for when you had nowhere to hide and nowhere left to run.

_"We have someone, someone who can help."_

There had never been a gunship or a team of commandos.

_"If you or a comrade was in imminent danger..."_

No airstrikes or conveniently placed snipers.

_"We have someone on the inside..."_

No agent in an officer's uniform to release them from their cell.

_"I tell you these words to save your life..."_

 Help had never come for any of them... or at least, that's what they had thought. There had been so many near misses, so many inexplicable coincidences and unlikely escapes. A hole in a patrol or a Star Destroyer out of place. An officer called away or a lucky technical malfunction. A _feeling_. All around the room, agents gave each other sideways glances as they struggled desperately to come to terms with this new reality.

_"We have someone, someone who can help."_

So few of them had ever used the code, but of those who had, not a single one had ever been captured.

“The desert never forgets,” Vader rumbles, his vocorder betraying nothing as he stands just a little bit straighter.

_"We have someone on the inside..."_

“The mighty one comes with the storm and with fire,” Mon continued, her words hushed, expectant, almost reverent. 

“We will walk free,” Vader intoned, his words ringing with an otherworldly finality that resonated with everyone present.

The tension in the room fell as the agents of the Rebellion lowered their weapons. They did this because they _believed_ him. They  _would_ be free. They would _all_ be free.

“Welcome home, Ekkreth," Mon finishes, a sad smile playing on her lips as she stares into the death mask that had haunted the galaxy for twenty years, never betraying the hero who lurked beneath.

* * *

** Hello Rex **

"Su cuy'gar, Rex?" Vader asked, his blank mask somehow projecting an air of mischief.

Rex blinked, confused. There were only two people who had ever said that to him who weren't his brothers. One was female, not human, and most certainly off-world at the moment. The other...

The other was supposed to be dead.

"General?" the old clone asked uncertainly.

Vader cocked his head ever so slightly. "You were expecting someone else?"

For a moment, the Rex looked stunned. Then... then he was furious. Without a second thought, the old trooper took two quick steps forward, cocked his arm back like a pneumatic chisel, and landed a right cross that sent the giant cyborg stumbling like a drunkard on Life Day. "Gar ani shabla, di'kutla _chakaaryc_!" the old commando roared, looking absolutely murderous as he stalked after his intended victim.

Meanwhile, with the rest of the characters.

"Whao, did grandpa just deck Darth Vader?"

"You saw that too?"

"Sure did."

"Kriff me, I knew the old bastard was tough but... _kriff."_

"No kidding...I got five creds on grandpa."

"I have ten on a draw."

"I'll put five on grandpa, too."

"What? Nothing on Vader?"

"Did you _see_ that punch?"

"Can you _hear_ how Vader's laughing?"

"...Twenty on the scary space wizard."

* * *

 Translations

Su cuy'gar = Still alive? (classic Mandalorian greeting)

"Gar ani shabla, di'kutla _chakaaryc_!" ~ "You completely screwed up, idiotic [ _extremely_ undesirable person]"

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vader finally left the Empire. It was supposed to be a happy ending. However, the Skywalker luck has struck again as Vader realizes that his children have inherited his talent for finding the worst kind of trouble no matter how many precautions anyone takes.
> 
> In short, Luke and Leia aren't at Vader's welcome party. Daddy is not amused.

"Where are... I thought they'd be here," Vader mused, his helmet turning this way and that as he tried to pick a certain face out of the crowd.

"Um, well, about that," Mon stalled, seeming suddenly uncertain.

Vader's head whipped around, fixing on her. 

"They are uh, that is... um, Luke had one of his moments and Leah wouldn't let him go alone. So..."

"Where are they?" Vader demanded

"They are... currently indisposed?"

"Mon," Vader growled, the sound coming through his vocoder like the

"She and Luke were on a mission, there were complications," she hedged. "Captain Solo is with them. Chewbacca too. And-"

"Where are my children Mon!?" Vader roared.

The entire hangar went silent as the grave.

Children?

Commander Skywalker?

And the Princess?

His... and General Rex had said... which meant... and that meant...

"Holy karking drek..." someone mumbled, their near silent words carrying through the area like a thunderclap.

 Most agreed that they had summed it all up perfectly.

* * *

_**Nordoran...** _

"Can't you do some of your fancy space wizard voodoo and-I don't know-set them on fire or something?!" Han demanded over the thunder of blaster fire.

"If I was suicidal? Sure!" Luke shouted back. "Pyrokinesis is one of the most destructive and uncontrollable Force abilities to ever-"

"Something else then!" Han snapped.

Luke shrugged, unconcerned. "I could, but I don't really think it's needed."

Solo's mouth fell open. "Not needed?" he wondered as a rain of blaster fire continued to splash over their cover. "Not-what fierfek fantasy flotsum have you been shooting up on Luke?!" he cried, seeming half hysterical.

"No, he's right," Leah argued. "It's like... there's something in the Force, like we're not in any real danger."

"Not in real-" Han spluttered. "Woman, we are pinned down by the better half of an entire Imperial garrison and their air support. What about that doesn't scream "real danger" to you?!" he demanded a moment before a blinding hyperspace corona light up the area and spat out a single X-wing, it's cannons already spitting a hail of crimson bolts.

_Krrrack!_

_Pewpew!_

_Boom!_

The thunderous snap of displaced air for the in-atmo hyperspace exit hit them just as the new arrival's opening salvo vaporized the first tie fighter.

_Pewpew!_

_Boom!Boom!_

_Pewpewpew!_

_Boom!Boom!Boom!_

_Pewpewpew!_

_Boom!Boom!Boom!_

"What air support?" Leah asked with a manic grin as the X-wing wove a tapestry of destruction through their enemies, obliterating nearly the entire complement of fighter escorts and unleashing a salvo of proton torpedoes that destroyed three of the five transport vessels in the area before they managed to mobilize. 

Han blinked stupidly as the X-wing's stabilizer jets fired, flipping the craft into a hairpin turn that would have knocked even a Duros unconscious with the g-forces it must have created. "What crazy koochoo do they have flying that thing?" he wondered, looking bewilderedly between his two friends and Chewbacca as the fighter used it's cannons to carve a bloody swath through the stormtroopers before coming around for another pass.

Chewbacca shrugged as the X-wing came in dangerously low, staffing the stormtroopers before angling sharply upward, killing dozens with the wash of its thrusters as it soared up and out of the path of the two surviving tie fighters. What did it matter who was flying as long as they had backup?

The X-wing rolled, using it's last two torpedoes to punch massive holes in the Imperial's ranks before peeling off toward the rear of their lines where the support vehicles were trying to get off the ground. Moments later, the two remaining drop ships and what little of the trooper's heavy weapons they had managed to unload vanished in a spray of cannon fire before a trooper managed to get a lucky shot with a rocket, destabilizing the X-wing long enough for the tie-fighters to clip its wings.

"Well, there goes our backup," Han moaned in despair as the smoking X-Wing hurtled toward the ground.

Luke just smiled a small, knowing smile.

Just as the alliance fighter was about to hit the ground, the canopy blew off the cockpit and the pilot leaped out... and used a lightsaber to cut one of the pursuing tie fighters in half before hurling the glowing sword like an arrow, driving it through the cockpit of the second and out the other end before landing before the imperial troops with a dull, ominous thump.

_Krrkhuu..._

_Krrkhuu..._

The figure did not move as the three fighters crashed into the ground, completely unphased as they sprayed burning fuel and wreckage in every direction.

_Krrkhuu..._

_Krrkhuu..._

Slowly, ever so slowly, Vader the Dark Lord of the Sith turned to face the remains of the imperial garrison, his menacing form haloed in the roaring conflagration that had moments before been an imperial amphibious assault force more than five hundred strong. Then a shaft of angry red light tumbled out of the smoke, a lightsaber, and flew into Vader's waiting hand. 

_Krrkhuu..._

_Krrkhuu..._

All of the remaining stormtroopers dropped to their weapons, their hands above their heads in the universal sign of surrender. 

Satisfied, Vadar spun on his heel and marched purposefully in the opposite direction until he was standing right in front of the smiling twins. 

"Father," Luke and Leia greeted in chorus.

"You are both grounded."

"...What?" Han mumbled weakly.

* * *

**Omake: Skywalker Drama**

_**By: EDelta88** _

**_Inspired By: Snakes_Shadow_   
**

Just as the alliance fighter was about to hit the ground, the canopy blew off the cockpit and the pilot leaped out... and used a lightsaber to cut one of the pursuing tie fighters in half before hurling the glowing sword like an arrow, driving it through the cockpit of the second and out the other end before landing before the imperial troops with a dull, ominous thump.

_Krrkhuu..._

_Krrkhuu..._

The figure did not move as the three fighters crashed into the ground, completely unphased as they sprayed burning fuel and wreckage in every direction.

Just off to the side of things, on slightly higher ground, a conveniently placed Force Ghost sighed in familiar exasperation at the dark figures dramatics. "Careful now, Vader. Your Anakin is showing," Obi-wan Kenobi drawled, completely ruining his former apprentice's well planned and carefully executed heroic entrance.

"Must you?" Vader rumbled grumpily.

"Always," Obi-wan replied without hesitation.

"Why is Vader talking to the air?" Han stage whispered.

"I have no karking idea, but they don't pay me enough to deal with this drek," replied a nearby Stormtrooper before dropping his weapon and stomping out of the franchise. Perhaps Marvel was hiring? He could put in for a transfer!


End file.
